The Northwestern softball team hadn’t played in four days and hadn’t faced Illinois in more than a decade. So it was reasonable to assume that the Wildcats needed some time to adjust.

But while NU was clearing the cobwebs, the Fighting Illini were crossing the plate.

Illinois used a four-run first inning to capture Game 1 by a score of 4-2 and scored eight runs in three innings to win 8-2 in the nightcap Friday at Eichelberger Field.

“It’s always hard when you get down early,” coach Sharon Drysdale said. “If it’s one or two runs it’s a lot easier to handle. When you get down three or four runs, that can be quite a mountain to climb.”

The Cats (13-17, 4-6 Big Ten) didn’t just give up a lot of early runs, they gave them up in a variety of ways.

In Game 1 the Illini (37-17, 5-5) loaded the bases in the first inning with two singles off NU starter Brie Brown and an error by the Cats’ infield. A Katie O’Connell double drove in two runners, an Alicia Hammel single drove in another and O’Connell later scored on an error.

Game 2 didn’t go any better for NU. The Illini scored three first-inning runs on two RBI singles off Cats pitcher Lauren Schwendimann and a passed ball. All three runs were unearned. The Illini added four more runs in the second inning, three of which were unearned.

Before the dust had cleared and the statisticians had sorted out the errors from the hits, NU was behind by a large margin in both games.